Dantewada District Collector R. Prasanna has announced a probe into allegations of the police and paramilitary forces burning homes, molesting three women and killing at least three men in an operation early this month. On Wednesday, The Hindu and Rajasthan Patrika carried news reports in which eyewitnesses accused Chhattisgarh's Koya commandos (an armed tribal police corps) and the Central Reserve Police Force of burning over 300 homes and granaries, sexually assaulting...

Outlining targets, agenda along the lines of UPA's promises in 2009 polls Agro techniques to improve land fertility, distribution through ‘land bank' Brimming with promises to revamp a wide range of sectors, including industry, agriculture, health and education, as well as bring about holistic development in the weaker sections of the society, the election manifesto that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee released here on Monday for the coming Assembly polls in the...

A rising number of cases of blackmail of government officers by using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, are being reported in RTI circles. Some of these cases came out in the open during the hearing of second appeals by the state information commissioner (SIC) Pune, Vijay Kuvelekar, recently. After a particularly gruelling hearing, a gram sevak from Satara broke down before the SIC and revealed that in her village...

It is a lesson in misplaced enthusiasm. While the Centre has been busy tom-tomming its efforts to send more children to school, enrolment in primary classes across the country has, in actuality, dropped since 2007. Between 2008-09 and 2009-10, enrolment in classes I to IV in Indian schools dropped by over 2.6 million. The biggest setback was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, where admissions plummeted by over a million in the last...

Pune district Administration inspects hill city site Report to be submitted to Environment Ministry We have the required permissions: Lavasa A site inspection of the Lavasa hill city conducted by the Pune district Administration has revealed that 7,78,86, 600 cubic feet of mining has been conducted in two villages by Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL). The comprehensive data regarding the remaining 17 villages is still being consolidated by the authorities, according to Pune Additional...